ETHIOPIA The new east african land of opportunity The country - History - Government - Economy - Infrastructure - Coffee - Development - Poverty - Historical Route - Travel in Ethiopia - Rafting - Asni Gallery The ASNI Gallery Interview with Mrs. Konjit, Owner of the gallery April 28th, 1999 Contact: P.O. Box 1896, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: 251 1 11 73 60 Fax: 251 1 51 56 91 e-mail: asnigallery@hotmail.com Visiting hours: Mon., Tue., Wed., Fri.: 1.30 pm - 5.30 pm Thu. & Sat.: 10.00 am - 5.30 pm Could you give us a brief historical background about the establishment of the gallery? Why did you decided to get involved into these activities? I have always been interested in Arts in general, specially in contemporary Ethiopian art. Before I started up the gallery, I used to go to exhibitions to see what was going on in terms of paintings, sculptures, and how our arts were trying to interpret the motions and expressions. By profession, I was trained as a translator. Three and half years ago, I was looking for a small place to set up my translation office, and get started on my own. I was looking for one of these Addis Ababa old houses, and it happened that I found this actual place quite by accident, so I got the idea of doing two things at the same time. I decided to use the downstairs as art gallery, where I could organize contemporary Ethiopian exhibition. The house needed to be replenished, so I renovated it. I found the whole thing through my translation work. I would get contracts on big translations, then I would do the work of the gallery with the money earned. Since it was not a big project, I did not needed professionals. The idea was to try and see if it could work. In 1996, I had the first child exhibition, asked framed artists if they could come out with some of their paintings, we set up this one weekend exhibition, and announced it around few friends. The turnout was incredible, I did not really expected such success. Then, I said this could work, and that I should start going on with it. At that time were there similar galleries, or were you the only one with such kind of business? I lived in Italy until 1992. When, I came back, there were exhibitions organized only by the foreign cultural institutes like the Alliance, Italian Cultural Institute, and the Gothic institute. Then Saint George Art Gallery opened, and started having exhibitions only once a year. We could see paintings with their designed furniture. At that time, it was only the Alliance Francaise which really promoted contemporary Ethiopian Art. Specially at the Alliance, the exhibition will open on a Tuesday night and will last until Saturday. The next Tuesday, there is already another exhibition going on. Therefore, you had only four days to see the exhibition. I was always wishing, if there was a place you could go and have a look at paintings as often as you wanted until the exhibition was over. The Italian cultural institute was even worse. The place they use for the exhibition is their auditorium, mainly used for their own projections, they have partitions which they use to put paintings up, and only the opening day will be important, afterwards they will have their own things going on, and you could not really go back to it. I did not really think of opening an art gallery, but just hoped that somebody will open somewhere something similar. When I found this house I said why not give it a try. Q. How many exhibitions did you organize so far? I think I have organized about 14 exhibitions. Since September it is my seventh exhibition. They are held on monthly basis. The original idea was trying to do at least three exhibition a year, then it was six, but somehow it seems like I have doubled it. Do Artists come here on their own to represent the gallery, or do you contact more people in order to organize those exhibitions? Well, it is on both sides. Specially, at the beginning I had to get to know the artists, and found out exactly what I was really interested in. I kept going in each and every house or studio. I have my own reason, for choosing only the contemporary Ethiopian Art. First of all, I am very much interested in south expressions. On the other hand, the other galleries that are now available around town did got a lot of traditional paintings, usually religious paintings that include icons, cross, etc. which I like very much, but not interested in working with that, because they are already working on it, it is available and very easy to see it. Secondly, personally I am interested in what my contemporary people as artists have to say about social life or anything else. If you have seen the list of exhibitions that I have organized, I have had abstract paintings which are very difficult to represent here, because it is not really in the tradition. Moreover, people who come from abroad, foreigners and tourists, are interested in the so-called exotic type of product and I do not have that. I have been trying to promote and show that there is also another side of us. It is like drinking Coca-Cola here, as it is drunk everywhere. There is self expression, these paintings are done by the artists to express themselves, and that has to be respected too. It is also good to have traditional and religious paintings, they have their own place, but I am not interested in Artifacts. Is it mostly a testimony of the present time? Yes, you can say that in a way. It is not only the present time, if you have seen the crucifixion exhibition, what I was interested in, was to show how things have developed chronologically in terms of the Ethiopian contemporary art. We have had crucifixion paintings and abstracts done in 1953, then 1963, then 70th, 80th, 90th, and the latest ones. Things move, time changes things, and it is part of the whole thing. That is what I am really interested in. Do you also plan to organize other types of activities like photographs, dances, etc.? Yes, apart from the painting and sculptures exhibitions I organized, I had to start with the children artistic days. With the help of painter friends, if you are familiar with the 'abujedit' cloth, it is cotton, and can also be used as cum bus. I bought the bulk, stretched it between trees in the garden, and invited kids to come and paint. We gave them paints, cardboard, paper to declollage to paint on, and it worked very well. I organized that 3-4 times, and I want to continue in that. Once or twice with a friend's sculpture, we prepared clay like traditional women potters use, and organized clay bolding day for children. Once the clays were dark, and did not look our sculptures, we sculptured and fired the whole thing traditionally. We also had music the whole day, and we happen to have sculpture friend, some painters, singers, and poets. I do not try to do it on a regular basis, it happens when it happens. It can be an Ethiopian coming from abroad who initiate such kind of program, or something like that. How do you communicate your activities? Are you inviting Ethiopian from abroad? For the painters, like I said I contacted them, and now they are contacting me too. For those coming from abroad, they hear about it as we have some kind of connection, and friends. There are lots of painters, writers, poets, and musicians working together to make things happen. This is how it works, but it is not big enough as a gallery, to kind of call specially somebody from abroad. We have had an exhibition, on abstract paintings, by a painter called Yohannes Gedamu who lived in Cologne (Germany). He came here for business, he saw the gallery, and we arranged an exhibition. We also had an American painter called Jayson Folder on last September. We had a photograph exhibition by a German photographer, called Yougan Straut, the exhibition was entitled 'Tropical Zone' as it was all in back and white photographs, on tropical plants of gardens in Europe. The gallery is open for all kinds of artistic activities. Our main objective is to give access to the country. Do you then plan to organize some of your activities in our Sub-regions? The gallery is only three years old. These three years were to learn about the work, to get to know the artists, and finding a way to sustain it. Even if I am still working on translations, at some stage, it has to sustain itself. During the last three years, I was proving myself, before getting to something bigger. Now, I happen to be in the committee that is working on the project of Harar, which is to open a museum called the Hambo house. I will assist them in organizing exhibitions. Some day, I would really like to see things happening in different regions, and also have people coming from other regions to do things. There is going to be something very interesting at the Gate institute, next to me. They are going to have people coming from the southern region and do body painting session. There will be some artists like Tibebe Teka, and Behailu Bezabeh that are going to work on this. There is a wish to do something wide to the horizon, but very slowly. How confident are you in the future of your country? I am very confident. There are so many things that are going on, and since 1992 we have seen lot of changes. It is true, we have also got political problems, there is a war, which it is sad, and we wish it was not there. But at the same time, there is a willingness to build-up things, and do new things. I am not the only one who wants these kind of things, we have got people coming from different part of the world to contribute something to their country. If you take it individually, we have the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, so we only have to take it as part of life, because it happens. We should go through it , and that should not stop us from hopping positively. As a final issue, what will be your final message to our readers? That is a very difficult question, as I have never thought about it. I would say come and visit Ethiopia. Yesterday I was at the British council, they were showing video clips done with street children, and I was really fascinating. It is very hopeful.   Read on   © World INvestment NEws, 1999. This is the electronic edition of the special country report on Ethiopia published in Forbes Global Magazine. July 26th 1999 Issue. Developed by AgenciaE.Tv